We’re witnessing it in the media, the social discourse is blowing up, but what is to be done about the Mental Health Crisis for the valued NHS staff?
In his latest op-ed piece, Eleventh Hour Group Insourcing’s Director of Services, Shaun Winsall explored mental health in the NHS, asking who is caring for the carers? He spoke candidly about a conversation he’d had with a friend of his who is a nurse in a trust in the northwest. We explore the statistics behind what we are witnessing in the media and social media storms.
In a 2024 study of over 1,000 NHS staff, 76% of those surveyed reported experiencing a mental health condition in the past year. We are not facing a looming mental health crisis; we are deeply immersed within an existing and extensive one, and it is only worsening.
In the team within that particular trust, Shaun discovered the team are down by an alarming seven staff members. Three are on long term sickness with stress, two on long term sickness for other reasons. Furthermore, two nurses have left, and they have not been replaced due to financial constraints. Another nurse is on phased return following sickness for stress. The dire financial conditions that NHS leaders are struggling to operate within is just one of many reasons why public healthcare providers, and more crucially those working within them, are stretched beyond their capacity.
Shaun explored the concept that NHS employees are ‘pressured into taking on additional work and constantly reminded of how behind they are from management expectations. Good grace seems to be what the department is surviving on. Good grace to see extra patients in their clinics. Good grace to work extended hours. Good grace to work overtime.’ (Winsall, 2025).
We ask, at what point will good grace be displaced by apathy due to significant burnout of employees.
Shaun spoke about case studies, and the exasperated staff who, after overwhelmingly busy shifts, would go home wrought with a sense of guilt for all the patients they were unable to give more time to. Purely due to the volume of patients and the lack of capacity.
Shaun identified in 2014 NICE published ‘Guidance on safe staffing for adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals.’ The ratio of Registered Nurses to patients was 1:8 at the absolute maximum. This ratio was to prevent a risk to care quality. They also gave a more optimum level closer to 1:6 or better, especially in acute wards. In his article, he asked whether the guidelines were adhered to. From his vantage point, they aren’t. He identified too that some staff members reported a ratio as high as 1:16 which has a direct impact on both safety and potential for increased burnout.
Heightened levels of burnout, stress and mental health challenges are cited as some of the most common reasons for longer term absences. Whilst these are extreme conditions, they seem to be becoming more common, which is alarming.
In both 2022 and 2024, studies showed that one in three (30%) felt burned out because of their work, with higher rates among nurses, midwives, and paramedics. Life on the frontline is arguably more intense, demanding and likely to exacerbate symptoms of burnout and mental health challenges thus investment is even more vital than ever before. “Working as a nurse is still incredibly challenging. It’s so vital that we continue to invest in NHS staff mental health” – Stefanie Gorman, Acting Deputy Chief Nursing Officer
The Stats Don’t Lie.
The most recent 2024 survey indicated alarming statistics that had either maintained their position since 2022, or worse still, increased in severity. The statistics are as follows:
- Anxiety: Over half (52%) of the surveyed staff reported experiencing anxiety.
- Low Mood: A similar proportion (51%) struggled with low mood.
- Exhaustion: More than two-fifths (42%) of respondents said they’d experienced exhaustion.
- Concerns about Colleagues: Three in five (60%) reported feeling concerned for the mental health of their colleagues.
- Work-Related Stress: Almost half (42%) of NHS staff felt unwell due to work-related stress in the 12 months before the survey.
- Burnout: One in three (30%) felt burned out because of their work, with higher rates among nurses, midwives, and paramedics.
- Sickness Absences: UNISON reported that more than three in ten (31%) NHS employees had to take time off work with mental health issues in the past year.
- Mental Health as a Cause of Absence: In England, a quarter (25%) of staff sickness absences in October 2023 were recorded as being due to mental health reasons.
There is one common theme in all the above data, and that is the current model is far from sustainable. Making further cost-cutting decisions for the short-term, have, and will continue to result in costly issues on the road ahead. An unsustainable solution that solves very little and causes more problems than it addresses.
Shaun stated, ‘Many reports have indicated that mental health issues, including stress and burnout, have become leading causes of sickness absence among NHS staff, highlighting the direct impact of staffing pressures on staff health. In 2023 The Royal College of Nursing found that growing pressures within the NHS had become so severe that the equivalent of a week off-work was taken by the health service’s 350k nurses the year prior due to stress, anxiety and depression.’ A diabolical figure that reminds us of the desperate need to protect our NHS, and most crucially, its employees.
With the Government’s promise of eliminating the waiting lists, this indicates that we will be asking even more of NHS staff. Shaun asks, are we about to see a greater increase in staff burnout and sickness levels?
Shaun ended his article with a key sentiment, ‘Our NHS are more important than any ever, they have cared for us through difficult and demanding times, but who is caring for them right now?’
